Catharsis
by Meduse
Summary: Somehow, somewhere along the way the Chase and Michael Show became a three men gig and quirky geek girls gained an irresistible appeal. The evolution of a jerk, pre-, mid- and post-series. QuinnLogan, all canon couples.
1. Meetings

**Catharsis**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Zoey 101.  
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_A/N: Hi there. Never thought I'd ever write anything for this series, but nostalgia grabbed me and as I rewatched this show I realized how much fun it would be to bounce these characters off one another. (Nice writing practice). Since my favorite character is definitely Logan, I sort of started writing little moments, fill-in-the blanks with him and it turned into way more than I expected. I love the dynamics between him and the group (and later with Quinn, of course), because it's never really clear where he stands with them. Plus, he's really fun to write. So here it goes, a fill-in-the blanks for pre-mid-and post-series. Purely canon couples, because I'm a canon-nut. _**  
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1. Meetings

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The students of PCA had learnt to accept that their lives would never stay entirely clear of the abnormal and the weird as long as they went to this school. For the past three years, PCA, with its picture perfect beaches, palm trees and swimming pools, had been the scene of many a strange event and it seemed that one unlikely sextet of friends particularly attracted the most impossible mishaps.

Yet despite the ghost sightings, the disastrous competitions and 'Quinnventions' going haywire, there was one thing that had always remained unshaken: the pillars of social life at PCA. Even if there were a lot of shades of grey in between, in essence there were the geeks and the jocks, the nice and the jerks, the hot and the not and a myriad of different relationships blooming accordingly between them all.

It was a beautiful haven of safety amidst the daily madness and it made _sense_. A safety that formed cracks when jerk jock Vince Blake returned a changed man catching the eye of one Lola Martinez, quivered when weirdo Mark dumped science geek Quinn for the incredibly hot Brooke, quaked when eternal 'just friends' Zoey and Chase _finally_ hooked up and all but came tumbling down when egomaniacal, obnoxious, 'never-kisses-the-same-girl-twice' _Logan Reese_ announced his _love_ for Quinn Pensky. Only to have that feeling _returned_.

The week after prom most students of their year were still reeling in shock. While the majority of monumental changes that had taken place this semester were more a matter of '_How_ did it happen?', the last case in particular was all about the 'How _could_ it happen at all?" and there was just no plausible answer to be found.

A superficial boy like Logan didn't _do_ love and a sweet, if disconcerting _genius_ like Quinn would never ever fall for a jerk of his likes. But the proof that it had happened was right there before their very eyes, whether they liked it or not, and unfortunately, nothing had ever been that simple with Logan Reese.

As the bonds between the infamous sextet around Zoey Brooks had tightened, for the better part of the past three years people had wondered, why, just _why_ anyone would _want_ to hang out consistently with someone like Logan- or simply _hang out_ with him at all. Because for all his riches and willingness to flaunt them at any given time, he wasn't generous at all.

For the better part of their friendship his friends wondered the exact same thing as well.

Chase and Michael, best friends from day one, couldn't really pinpoint the moment they first considered Logan a friend of sorts. Like most unfortunate accidents, it had simply happened. In many ways Logan was similar to a bad pop song that was repeated all over the radio again and again. You realized how awful it was, but after some time you grew used it and then one day, you found you didn't mind so much anymore and started listening to it on your own until it was stuck in your head.

If you asked either of the two boys, they had ignored, vaguely tolerated and sometimes – but only _sometimes_- even hung out with him during those two years before PCA allowed in girls. He'd been their roommate after all and it just wasn't cool to shun the people you roomed with. (Even if they were narcissistic, self-serving and smug.)

And then, over the years, when stuff had happened and girls had suddenly run rampant in PCA, they supposed they'd just kinda, sorta…grown used to having him around.

Hey, simply because they were a fixed group of friends now and he just so happened to be included in it, they weren't necessarily 'friends' friends. It wasn't like they actually _enjoyed_ hanging out with him. It wasn't like they were _best friends_ with him.

Don't let others confuse you on the matter. Because it's always been the Chase and Michael Show and it would stay that way.

(Featuring Logan. Somewhat. In small parts. Like, tiny, really insanely small parts.)

No, Logan Reese wasn't their best friend, regardless of what people thought and assumed. (Oh, hush already!)

If anything – and that was stretching it- he was their _worst_ friend.

And he'd been that from day one.

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Chase had been anticipating this day for three months now, but it still felt somewhat surreal as he waved the departing back of his parents' cab good bye. His friends back home had seen him off at the airport a couple of days ago, handing him a handmade card with their signatures wishing him all the best and his baby sister had cried in his grandmother's arms as she'd pressed a wet kiss on his cheek. But it wasn't until that moment that Chase Matthews truly realized that he was gone from home and wouldn't be back for a good portion of months.

The campus of the Pacific Coast Academy lay sprawled out before him and it looked as pretty as a picture, with its gorgeous sea view, palm trees and sunny lanes. There were no palm trees in his corner of the States and he'd always associated the sea and golden beaches with summer holidays rather than school. But he _would_, ideally, spend the next few years of his education right here, in this Californian vacation paradise. _Surreal_.

It had been nothing but a stroke of good luck that Chase was standing here right now. If it hadn't been for his father's colleague recommending the school in passing (his nephew had apparently graduated here last year), he likely wouldn't even have known that it existed. A month of constant grating on his parents' last nerve to send him here and three further months of almost painful waiting and here he was. Ready to enter his very first boarding school, far away from home.

"Hey there, newbie. Get a move on!" A loud voice and a painful bump to the shin shook him out of his reverie. As Chase jumped, startled, he turned to see an older student who tried to tow his suitcases past the sixth grader. Tall and looming, he had to be a freshman or sophomore at least. And he looked positively exasperated. Now, Chase didn't know much about boarding schools yet, but he was pretty sure already that messing with students who looked as if they'd swallowed an entire cupboard wasn't the best way to start your stay off.

"Ah, yeah, sorry…" he sputtered, hastily reaching for his own set of luggage and tried to scurry away quickly and inconspicuously. But nobody could help being scrawny and so he found himself pulled down from the crushing weight of his suitcases sooner than he'd expected. Losing his footing, he tumbled to his left and connected with the concrete, headfirst.

"I'm okay, I'm okay!" he guffawed, as he tried to struggle free from the massive suitcase that had fallen right on top of him. He heard the sound of light giggles around him and groaned inwardly. Two minutes on his own and his infamous clumsiness had already struck again.

"Oh god…" the older student said rolling his eyes and brushed past the boy. As luck would have it, the corners of his largest suitcase hit Chase in the head and a sharp pain shot straight to his brain. Another round of giggles reached his ears.

"That's alright. Really! I love being put through pain. Thank you so much!"

The retreating back of the offender told him in a non-verbal way that he couldn't care less.

Rubbing the sore spot, Chase finally lifted the deadweight on his chest. A blush spread all over his cheeks as he caught a glimpse of a small crowd of students who'd apparently watched the incident. Trying to avert his eyes, he grabbed his luggage again and hauled it over the ground, feeling a little bit groggy.

Of course he stumbled promptly and gloriously over a couple of stairs that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. So much for a fresh start at a new place. At least he avoided falling down again.

There'd been a welcoming speech by the dean yesterday and a brief meet up with the dorm advisers earlier this morning, so he had at least a vague idea of where he was supposed to go now. The note stuck into the front pocket of his jacket (quite useless in the Californian weather) told him that he'd been assigned to Maxwell Hall, room 148.

"Hmm. Maxwell Hall it is, then." He muttered as he made his way towards the dorm area the new sixth graders had been shown this morning. All around him students were greeting each other, clapping on each other's back, catching up. Of course all of them were male as the Pacific Coast Academy was a 'boys only' school. It was a little weird, but then again, Chase didn't mind too much. Back home he'd had the tendency to make an even bigger fool out of himself when girls were around.

Disoriented, he hurried along the campus for a while until a couple of sophomores near a fountain took pity on him and asked him just where he wanted to go. Out of breath, his sides splitting with pain and his head still aching, Chase was happy to swallow all thoughts of pride and dignity and allowed them to send him on his way to Maxwell Hall.

As he approached the building, anticipation built up in him again. Despite the dorm assignment today, he had no clue who he was going to room with. There had been a multitude of boys his age in that hall and he'd been busy keeping his mom, nervous to have to leave her son so soon, from fussing with his hair every two minutes. He'd had a fair share of friends in his class back home, but he'd always had a bit of trouble meeting people and not having them write him off as soon as he stumbled, tripped and/or fell over the next obstacle within in reach. Hopefully he'd have nice roommates. But then again, could anyone be cranky living at PCA?

"I got this beauty at the twenty-seventh May Convention in Chicago. Original package, signed, with a very rare fabrication error, as I've been told."

"_O. M.G. _It's the 4.5 G.3.O! _"_

Chase turned his head as he passed through Maxwell Dorm's hallways, trying not to bump into the pieces of luggage that were thrown quite carelessly all over the ground. He noticed three boys his age animatedly chatting with each other in front of room 131. An Asian looking boy was presenting some sort of…package with a large smile on his face, while a tall blonde and a small pudgy guy took it from his hands and observed it with shining eyes.

"That's no regular G.3.O! It's the one that only appears in the 'Galaxy Wars: Here it is again' director's cut outtakes, released exclusively in the ultimate collector's edition from 2004! FCOL! How'd you get your hands on this one?"

A round of excited chatter and Internet slang flared up again and Chase who'd been about to approach them in the name of making friends , mouthed 'Galaxy Wars?' and cautiously retreated back into a side hallway.

It was there that he, still glancing over his shoulder back at the geeks with disbelief plastered all over his face, ran into yet another person. He whirled around with a shock. Groaning, a rather large black-haired boy had fallen onto his back in front of him.

"Oh, goodness, I am so sorry…" Chase jumped over the fallen suitcases and hurried to help the other boy up. He was met with a blank stare and an even duller voice.

"I fell."

"Uh…yes. I know. I…I didn't mean to…" Frowning, he pulled him up to his feet. "Have you hurt yourself?"

There was no sign of any emotion on the boy's face.

"Nah. I'm good."

"So…" Chase tried to think of something to say and leave, because frankly, this void expression was slightly unnerving. "You're new at PCA, too, eh?"

A sniff. "Yeah."

"Then…I guess I'll see you around. I'm new too, you know."

The boy shrugged indifferently.

"That's possible."

"Yeah." Chase blinked in confusion, but shook himself out of it to grab his bags and suitcases again.

"Alright. Oh, my name's Chase by the way."

His outstretched right hand was ignored. Inconspicuously, he drew it back.

"I'm Mark."

"Well, Mark, it was nice to…_meet_…you?"

"Guess so."

Shaking his head, Chase brushed past him. Okay, so the first impression of the boys of his year wasn't exactly top-notch, but hey, who knew what the year would bring? He wasn't disappointed. No, he wasn't. _Wasn't_.

Argh, he should just go find his room.

After several more moments of wandering around, his eyes finally caught sight of the number '148'. Relieved he reached for the handle. There was no sign of anyone standing around - perhaps he was the first one of his roommates to arrive. Sweet. He'd so call dibs on the single bed. The last class trip with his class back home had been a disaster…top-bunks were lethal. Lethal!

"Grandma! We just said goodbye to each other, like, fifteen minutes ago!" a voice greeted him from the inside of the room. "No, I won't forget to eat enough! Yes, I packed them…I…NO!...I swear I…look; can I just talk to dad now, please?"

Before Chase had a chance to catch sight of the tall black boy pressing a cell phone to his ear, his feet collided with a large blue suitcase that was inconveniently thrown just in front of the door and, his bags and suitcases flying off in all different directions, he yet again made contact with the floor, headfirst as always. The all-too familiar pain rushed through his body. Okay, this wasn't even funny anymore!

The other boy started at Chase's cry. His eyes widened almost comically as he spotted the his predicament.

"Sorry grandma, gotta hang up! Right now! Yeah, I…_bye_, Granny!" he barked into the cell and flipped it shut.

"Dude! Are you alright?"

Chase cracked a weak smile.

"Yeah. I'm sorta used to that sort of thing right now, actually."

"Really?" the other boy gave him a funny look and helped him break free from the various pieces of luggage. "Looks like a bad habit you're developing here."

"Yeah, well." Chase carefully circulated his arm to see if it still had feeling. His back was aching quite badly by now. He groaned inaudibly as the other boy clapped him on the back. "That's me. Pushing the boundaries of common sense."

"Hey, I'm sorry for leaving this stuff here. But you know how it is…my grandma called to check if I was alright." The boy shook his head with a meaningful look. "And that lady is fired up. It was answering the phone or having her march back here to whack me in the head."

"Sounds like a whack-tastic situation." Chase agreed with a small nod and noticed with some displeasure that the single bed was already occupied with another batch of bags.

"_Yep_. Anyway." The boy extended his hand and gave him an easy smile. "I'm Michael Barrett. Looks like we'll be roomies for a while."

Chase smiled back. "Chase Matthews. Though I suppose you could also call me the 'guy who tripped'. It's what I do."

Michael squeezed his hand, then turned to flip his enormous suitcase on top of the single bed and his other luggage. "Yeah, seems like you got some big issues with gravity, dude." He stopped as if he'd just thought of something and whipped his head around.

"Hey, is that your natural hair?" he asked curiously.

Chase self-consciously touched his locks. "Uh…yeah."

Michael gave a low whistle. "Impressive. It's like some crazy Jewish afro."

"Hehe…" Chase chuckled uncertainly. "Then I guess I'm the fro-boy."

He earned another funny look for that one. "Yeah…let's leave it a Chase."

"Right."

"So." Apparently having decided that unpacking was too much trouble right now; Michael abandoned his suitcase and grinned conspiratorially at him. "You gonna call the top bunk or what? Seems like our third guy's a little late. And you know what they say…you snooze, you lose."

"Oh…no." He could only imagine the various ways he could break his neck while sleeping and rolling over the edge of his bed. "I'd rather stay close to the ground, if you know what I mean."

Michael's gaze flickered over his lovely collection of bruises on his arms and his legs. A look understanding passed through his eyes. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Anyway." Chase trotted over to the bunks beds and set his luggage down. Finally. It wasn't the optimal start, but at least he'd reached his destination in one piece. And, he thought with contentment Michael seemed like a really nice guy. He could so do this whole boarding-school thing. "You got any idea who our third roommate is?"

"Nah, I was trying to keep my grandma from tackling that one guy who'd bumped into her when they read out the assignments. But hey, we'll find out soon enough. I'm pumped for this year, anyhow! I mean, you seem pretty chill already."

"Oh…thanks. You too." Chase couldn't recall anyone calling him 'chill' before, but it was definitely appreciated. Maybe they could be friends. Hmmm. He would like that. Starting off here with a friend seemed infinitely less scary and Michael had that casual…friendliness about him. Like, you simply couldn't dislike him. "This your first time at a boarding school as well?"

"Yep!" Michaels face split into a broad grin. "And it's a boys only school at that! Haha! It's freedom time for Michael!" Catching on Chase's befuddled expression, he explained. "See, I'm from an all women household. My father and I are trying to hold our ground, but it's pretty hard with five girls in the house."

"Not to mention your 'fired up' grandma." Chase added with amusement.

Michael nodded seriously. "Ya, that woman got rage issues."

They spend the next minutes with amiable chatter while they settled in their new room, exchanging 'where are you from's, first impressions of PCA, a wise-crack or two. By the time Chase had already ranged his stuff into the cupboards and stashed his suitcases under his bed, Michael had managed to splatter all his clothes over his bed with seemingly no inclination to go any further with his unpacking. He glanced out of the window.

"Hey, Chase, you wanna go check out the campus together after our roommate's arrived?"

"Sure! Hey, do you know when we get our schedules for tomorrow?"

"Ya, I think we're supposed to meet our dorm advisor this evening at-"

Michael's answer was cut short by the sounds of rummaging and rumbling coming up in the hallway. Faint cries of 'careful with that!' reached their ears. Curious, the boys looked at each other and stood up, walking over to the door of their dorm.

"That's it?"

The door was pushed open forcefully and to the extreme bewilderment of both Michael and Chase, four uniformed men carrying a multitude of suitcases hurried inside to arrange them neatly in a corner, not even taking any notice of the boys. An elderly man clad in something that looked like a straight-from- TV black butler's suit stepped in after them, a sourly, yet guarded expression on his face.

Chase exchanged a stunned look with Michael who spoke up uncertainly:

"Uh…hi? Who-"

"We have indeed arrived, Sir." The elderly man drawled strangely, looking at them over the tip of his nose as though they were insects. Before they could open their mouths again, a boy their age with curly sand-brown hair and an exasperated expression strode past him. Everything about his attire, from the red muscle shirt to the shaggy jeans practically screamed 'jock'. It was clichéd looks brought to their extremes and it didn't make Chase comfortable at all.

"No way!" The boy exclaimed loudly and rudely, as the other four men quickly set down the suitcases and scurried out of the door. "You gotta be kidding!"

"I never joke, Sir."

The butler was rewarded with an annoyed look. Chase cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Uhm…would someone please explain what's going on here?"

"Yeah! What's all this?" Michael gestured around, his voice a touch hysterical. "And who are you people?"

The butler ignored them entirely and turned to the strange boy. "It appears we have met your roommates, Sir."

Chase and Michael gasped. "Roommates?" the latter whispered almost inaudibly. Chase shrugged helplessly.

The boy rolled his eyes and scoffed. "I can _see_ with my own eyes, thank you Chauncy. What I don't get is _why_?"

"It is by order of your father, Sir."

"Well, can't you-"

"I cannot, Sir, as you know."

"Urgh!" With an overdramatic sigh, the boy's chest fell for a moment, before he puffed it out again and finally directed his gaze at the other two boys in the room. "Hi!", he barked out. "Looks like I'm stuck with you two."

"Uh…" Chase glanced at Michael for help, but the other boy was too stunned to say anything. To be fair, neither of them had quite expected something like _this_. But hey, it couldn't hurt to be polite, considering that apparently they all were 'stuck' with each other for this year, right?

"Hi!", he thus replied, hesitantly extending his hand. The other boy grabbed it and shook it once, but there was a look of distaste in his eyes. Chase chose to ignore it and skipped straight to the introductions. "I'm Chase Matthews."

Michael raised his hand in a faint wave. "Michael Barrett. What's up?"

The boy nodded courtly, before he settled back and crossed his arms casually over his chest. Self-importance practically radiated from his form. "The name's Logan." An arrogant, self-satisfied smirk flittered across his face. "Logan _Reese_."

He looked expectantly at them. But meeting his gaze, Chase was assured that Michael was just as clueless as him as to what exactly the boy expected from them.

"Uh, well, hi then… Logan." he tried weakly. The smirk slid off Logan's face and turned into utter annoyance and disbelief, as he whipped his head around to his butler.

"Okay, why don't they recognize the name?"

Chauncy's face remained entirely impassive. Chase was reminded of this Mark guy he'd met earlier in the hall. It seemed they would get along just wonderfully.

"I presume that they have not made the connection, Sir.", the butler replied in his unnerving staccato voice. Chase drew his eyebrows together in confusion.

"Made the connection?"

"Recognize _what_?"

Logan rounded up to them with a look of obviousness, stretching out his arms. "Uh, _Reese_? As in Malcolm Reese?"

A collective gasp escaped the boys' throats.

"The movie producer?"

"Duh!" Logan rolled his eyes.

Chase's thoughts were tumbling all over each other. _Malcolm Reese_? The man was the epitome of success and fame! He'd produced half of his parents' favorite films and then some shows Chase and his friends had watched each afternoon over at his place. Malcolm Reese was one of those producers who were just as well-known as the celebrities who starred in his films! It was the kind of name you heard so often on TV or read in newspaper, until you couldn't imagine that there was this actual person with an actual life running around somewhere.

He was blabbering before he could help himself.

"So…are you related to him? Or is this one of those funny coincidence things, where people share a similar last name and have nothing to do with each other, but everybody keeps asking them about it, so they freak out whenever the name's brought up and start kicking cute little puppies in the streets?"

Logan grimaced with disgust.

"Chauncy?"

"Yes, Sir?"

He pointed at them openly and rather unabashedly.

"Why do I have to live together with _stupid_ people?"

"Hey!" Chase nudged Michael disbelievingly in the side. "He called us stupid!"

"I know!" the other boy exclaimed, outraged. " What'd _I_ say? "

"Thanks for the support." Chase commented dryly. He was rewarded with an impish smile.

"I am not in the position to give a qualified answer to that, Sir. However, it has been Mister Reese's wish that you receive your secondary education in an "age-appropriate"-"

"…"environment", ya, ya. _Whatever_." Logan waved his hand dismissively and scoffed. "But look at this!" He gestured around; arms wide open, with a look of scorn etched into his face. "This place is a lumber room! Our _cleaning lady_ has a larger dressing room than that! I'm supposed to _live_ here?"

"It has been brought to my attention that the space provided in this dorm meets the authentic living conditions of regular pre-teenage boys your age, Sir."

Logan stared uncomprehending at his father's butler.

"There are two other boys in the same room." he pointed out with exasperation.

"I am most aware of the fact, Sir."

"Well…well…" He floundered around for words. "I _don't_ wanna room with them! I want my _own_ dorm! Understand? Besides, they look like total nubs!"

"Why do I have the feeling that we're being very rudely left out of the conversation?" Chase remarked casually. By now, both him and Michael stood with their arms crossed.

"Hmm, I don't know, Chase." Michael replied with fake wonder." It must be the weather."

"Yeah. It seems to be raining insufferable cockiness today."

"Oh, I was gonna say it's clouded with blatant obnoxiousness, but that works too."

Logan started pacing, anger flaring up in his voice. Carelessly, he trampled over various things of Michael's that still lay strewn over the ground. "Look, if you can't fix this, I'm gonna call my dad right now! I'm gonna call him and I'm gonna tell him that you-"

"Mister Reese has given strict instructions not to interrupt his schedule, unless in case of an emergency. I cannot allow you to call him now, Sir."

Again, a look of utter lack of comprehension flashed over the boy's face. "This _is_ an emergency! And what do you mean you 'can't allow' me? Like I'm supposed to take orders from a serv- "

Not bothering to waste any more words, the butler suddenly started to poke him in the neck. Logan flinched back, incredulously trying to avoid the oncoming attack, throwing out threats and pleas to stop at the same time. Amazed, the other two boys watched him squirm.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

Michael shook his head, a quiet laugh audible in his voice. "You know, this school's cracked up to be really entertaining."

"Uhuh." Chase nodded.

Angrily, Logan eventually managed to fend Chauncy's hands off his neck and took a large leap back, fury contorting his features.

"Never do that again!"

The butler shrugged indifferently, not disturbed by the furious pre-teen in the least, and stepped over to the door where he gave a stiff bow.

"Farewell, Sir."

Logan's anger vaporized and turned, once again, into utter disbelief. With a start he jumped to the open door.

"You're leaving just like that? Chauncy? Hey, wait, Chauncy! HEY! You…You will regret this! You hear me? Dad will hear about this! Chauncy? Oh, you're as good as _fired_! For good!"

His threats rang hollow into the empty hallway. Scoffing like a child who is denied candy, Logan turned around and stared blankly at his roommates. Chase coughed semi-politely.

"Wow. What a… introduction."

"Yeah, so _eventful_." Michael tried. They were both subjected to a particularly nasty glare.

After an awkward silence that stretched over the better part of two minutes with neither of them sure what to do next, Chase slumped down on his bed and decided to speak up. If only to end the awkwardness, if nothing else.

"So…Logan." he began cautiously. His parents had always told him that politeness would eventually him far in any situation. Looking at his new roommate's expression, he was beginning to suspect that there were such things as hopeless cases. "I guess, we're roommates now and… we'll get along just wonderfully?"

A not-so subtle cough rang from Michael's direction. Logan rolled his eyes and kicked one of his bags across the room.

"Yeah, yeah, just listen. I didn't wanna share _my_ room with two other guys and I'm sure as heck not gonna be your little pally- pal. So just stay away from my stuff, don't get on my nerves and at least try, just try, _not_ to be idiots." He did that puffing-out-his-chest-in-a-superior-way thing again. "'Cause I'm obviously all-around awesome-"

"_Obviously_."

"- and I don't want to mess up my general awesomeness by having people think that I'm buddies with two losers or something. Is that understood?"

Michael nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, you won't have to worry about being buddies with us, believe me."

The veiled insult seemed to escape Logan. Instead he made his way over to the single bed, another look of disgust flashing in his eyes.

"Good. Now get this…stuff…off my bed."

Chase and Michael exchanged incredulous looks.

"Your bed?" Michael repeated irritated. "How is this your bed? We arrived here first and I called dibs on this one."

Logan smiled at him mockingly. "Cute story. But _I_ want the single bed."

"So?"

"So…when I want something I get it. _Get it_?"

Noticing the suppressed anger welling up in Michael's face, Chase leapt off his bed and stepped in between of the two boys who had risen up dangerously close to one another. He raised his hands defensively and stared Logan down.

"Yeah, look, I don't care if your rich producer daddy got you everything you ever wanted when you asked for it, but this is our room, too, and we ought to have rules here and principles that-"

Logan reached into his back-pocket and pulled out a hot off the press one hundred dollar bill. With a smug smirk he held it in front of their faces. Rapidly, the expression on Michael's face changed, as his brain worked faster than ever and before Chase could get in another world, he reached past him and snatched the bill out of Logan's hands.

"-rules and principles that can certainly be bent when money's talking." Michael interrupted hastily with a huge, false grin and pocketed the bill. He straightened up and clapped Chase enthusiastically on the back. "Chase! I suddenly feel like sharing these fine bunk beds with you. That okay with you, Logan? "

The boy in question gestured over to the bunk beds.

"Don't let me stop you." He gave them a triumphant grin that seemed complacent and disdainful at the same time. "I think we'll get along just fine, after all."

Chase sputtered. "But Michael-"

He was nudged quite sharply in the side. "Shush, dude, that's _one hundred_ bucks in my hand!"

"Yeah, but…"

Logan snorted at them.

"Average people. _So_ predictable. Well…" He moved over to the room's entrance with obviously no inclination to invite them to come along." I'm gonna go check out the campus. Bye losers."

The door shut with a loud crash.

Chase shook his head.

"Michael?"

"Yes, Chase?"

"I don't think I like our new roommate."

"Yeah…" Michael agreed airily. "But as long as he dishes out these…" He held the one hundred dollars under Chase's nose. "…I think it could be a lot worse."

"Sell-out."

"Oh, come on!" Michael called after Chase, as they made their way out in order to check out the campus themselves. "What'd I do?"

.

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_A/N: So I think, coming from the background he did (multimillionair dad and house in Beverly Hills), PCA would've been quite a different thing for Logan, hence the attitude. The Chauncy poking thing is based on his line in 'Logan Gets Cut Off'. _

_I realize that, seeing that the show's been gone for four years now, it's highly unlikely anyone's gonna care about this story. But I'm mostly writing this for myself, so it's okay. Posting it up on the slim chance anyone's getting enjoyment from this, even though I'd still love you forever and ever if I got any feedback. I'm not a native English speaker (and don't live in the USA for that matter), so please forgive any mistakes language or context-wise (like the school system) , or better yet, correct them. Thanks for reading.  
_


	2. First Impressions

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own anything related to Zoey 101.**

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_A/N: I was hesitant to upload so quickly (relatively spoken), because I like having some sort of a head-start in my writing before I post. But I'm graduating high school today, so I thought, why not? It's gonna be a busy weekend for me. _

_These first chapters are going to be focused on the beginnings of the friendship between the three boys, before the girls come in. In season one it seems that Logan's hanging out quite a lot with other boys as opposed to later seasons where we almost always see him alone or with Chase and Michael (unless of course, he's having sports practice). And considering he's pretty much set up as the obnoxious jerk character (pretty unbearably so in season one), yet they still do hang out with him even in this season and Michael is often the middle-man, despite being Chase's best friend, some bonding must have taken place in the two years they roomed together prior to the show. So these first chapters are my take on how that went down._

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2. First Impressions

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"Is that kid _still_ asleep?"

The next morning, their first real school day at PCA, Chase glanced over at the single bed, their roommate deeply huddled under blankets, before pulling his sweater over his head. He turned to Michael, who was already up and standing, in order to nod in confirmation.

"Yup. Seems like he's completely out of it."

Michael sent him a confused look. "From _what_? This is our first day at PCA!"

Chase only shrugged. Depending on the angle, it _was_ pretty impressive how the other boy had managed to sleep through two alarm clocks blasting at full volume, one cell phone alarm going off every five minutes and even the dorm phone ringing as Michael jumped out of bed in order to talk to someone who was _definitely not_ his grandma. Not to mention, that their Dorm Advisor had checked in with the boys just recently, in order to ensure that they got off to a good start at PCA.

"Perhaps he's waiting to be brought his breakfast and morning paper." Chase said jokingly on afterthought. Most of their new roommate's suitcases were still unpacked, even if they stood neatly lined up by his bed. When Chase had suggested that he should take care of them yesterday evening, Logan had just given him a look and sneered 'gross'. He must have had a large staff of employees at his disposal at home, because the concept of doing something himself seemed to elude him completely.

"Well, he better thinks again. " Michael replied sternly, shaking his head. "I'm not gonna play house servant for anyone."

Chase tilted his head. "Well, you _did_ take his money…"

"Oh, will you cut a dude some slack already? That's in the past."

"It was _yesterday_."

"Which is in the past, right?" Michael grinned slightly, taking a look around. His face brightened as he caught sight of the couch. He marched over in order to grab one of the cushions.

"Yes, but only by a mere couple of _hours_."

"You're gonna hold that against me forever? Way to bring a brother down."

Chase chuckled incredulously. "We barely know each other."

"Now that's cold." Michael mock-chastised him, before looming over their roommate. With a grin, he whacked the cushion at Logan's head, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Hey there, rich boy. Rise and shine!"

Chase couldn't contain another round of chuckles when he saw the other boy shoot up with a cry from his bed, sleep-addled eyes roaming through the room.

"What?" Logan spat. From the tone of his voice, it seemed the greatest crime known to mankind to have woken him up. His hair was heavily tousled, giving him the appearance of a wild animal in Chase's not-so-honest-but-preferred opinion, wheezing and glowering at them and all. "What's going on here?"

"We got our first class in fifteen minutes." Chase explained good-naturedly.

The level of incredulousness and outrage in Logan's eyes increased.

"So?"

"_Fifteen_ minutes." Michael repeated matter-of-factly. "Man, you're gonna run late if you don't get up now."

With a heavy sigh of annoyance, Logan propped himself up on his elbow to look up at him.

"Who. _Cares_?"

Michael turned around to Chase, searching for support with a look of disbelief of his own.

"We do." Chase replied immediately. "Being caring people and all that, you know. But, uhm, _you_ should probably, too. Considering this is our first day and you're sort of supposed to go to class at a boarding school. That's where the _school_ part comes in, you see."

Flat out ignoring him, Logan turned back to Michael.

"Are you people for real?"

"Uh…yeah."

"God!" Logan rolled his eyes melodramatically and turned their back on them, rolling over in order to face the wall. "Don't go nerding on me like that again."

Chase's voice grew defensive. "Hey, we were just-"

"'_Night_!"

The two boys stared at each other, at a loss for words. How ungrateful, careless and just all-around obnoxious could you get?

Shrugging their disbelief off, they slowly made way for the door. As he closed it shut behind them on the fast-asleep again boy in their dorm, Michael turned to Chase.

"Chase?"

"Yes, Michael?"

"I don't think I like our roommate, either."

.

* * *

.

"You are twenty minutes late, Mr….?"

Logan smirked slightly, standing in front of the class with his backpack slung casually over one shoulder, giving off the appearance of all the confidence in the world.

"Logan Reese. As in Malcolm Reese."

A faint murmur ran through the class room and he felt his smirk grow. That's right, folks. Utter superiority in the room, ready to be admired. Better take pictures.

That lame old balding guy in front of the teacher's desk raised his eyebrow at him in what Logan supposed was meant to make him feel guilty, humbled, chastised, or whatever. Yeah right. Better think again, Mr. Dorky Glasses. His father had the money to buy that guy's everything and use it as a dump. Scratch that, his father had the money to buy that guy.

(Not that he would, because, urgh, he looked like a grown-up version of an utter nerd.)

"Well, Logan as in 'I disrespect this school's policy' Reese." The batty teacher drawled. Was that an attempt at intelligent humor? Talk about a loser in his natural habitat. "I assume you are most aware that we have a strict policy against tardiness at PCA?"

Logan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

"That is quite an attitude for such a young man to have. On his first day, too." The teacher observed pointedly. Logan just gave him a look. Some people didn't know when to quit. Scoffing, he strode past the old man and flung himself down in front of the only free desk left, somewhere in the middle of the room. He felt the looks that were sent his way, some curious, some amused, some wary and it felt pretty awesome.

They were lucky, he was here at all. Usually at this point, Logan had already worked out some sort of arrangement with his homeschooling teacher, whoever that might be at the time present. He pretended to care for, like, twice a week tops and they left him mostly alone to do whatever it was he wanted to do at the moment, provided he somehow did his schoolwork (or got one of the staff to type it for him). This boarding school gig was certainly something new, but nothing that was gonna bring Logan Reese down. Just watch.

"Well, since Logan here is obviously bored by introductions, why doesn't he skip straight forward to explain to the class what we understand by the term 'limerick'?"

Logan furrowed his eyebrows together as he felt the teacher's oh-so-superior-and-stern gaze upon him. "I dunno…some sort of hair restorer? Because, you could _really_ use one."

Another round of giggles sounded throughout the room, only louder this time. Lame teacher's face grew very red in the matter of seconds, making him look like a tomato what with the balding head and all. For a split-second it seemed as if he was going lash out at him, but, as Logan noted with satisfaction, lame teacher was bound on proving his maturity by letting the comment slide.

"Ah, such is the course of nature. Sometimes keen eyes have to substitute an active mind."

Logan shrugged, slightly bewildered. Was that supposed to mean something to him? Lame teacher pointedly turned away from him and scanned the room for another student to speak up.

"Uh…how about you Chase? Care to enlighten Logan about the finer arts of human culture?"

Chase? The whiner in his room who seemed to have a life-long bad hair day? Logan craned his neck and spotted that freakishly bushy hair at the far front of the room. Apparently he and his other roommate had already hit it off, because, sure enough, they were seated next to each other.

Chase faltered slightly under the twenty-nine looks that were suddenly all on him.

"Uh…"he started awkwardly. "A limerick's a humorous, short poem with a stanza of five lines and a strict rhyme scheme. The form dates back to the England of the 18th century."

"Very good, Chase!" Lame teacher congratulated him enthusiastically and Chase shrunk further behind his desk. Logan sneered. It figured he'd be stuck with some sort of literary nerd and his 'BFF'.

"Logan, are you quite certain now that you've never heard the term before?"

"Maybe I would've." He replied, his gaze pointedly fixed on this Chase kid. "If I'd spent my time trying to pick up girls in the _library_, like _some_ people."

It was a claim that came out of the blue, but it did the trick. Half the class burst into loud laughter, whereas Chase blushed horribly and slid down so much that he almost hid the desk with his forehead. Michael, sending a glare Logan's way, propped him up defensively.

"Alright, alright, break it up, boys!" Lame teacher yelled over the noise. Logan grinned with complacency. Yeah, he was gonna make it here at PCA just fine.

"Now, as I've said before our…._interruption_, we are going to start off this semester with early poetry from the…"

This was sort of the point in time that Logan started to tune lame teacher's voice out. It stayed that way for the rest of the period. Because, really, who could possibly _care_?

.

* * *

.

He was on his way to set his lunch tray down (and they called that mess _food_? Bah!), when a group of respectably looking jocks came his way. Logan recognized some of them from English period this morning, others from several other irrelevant nuisances called classes he'd been forced to attend this day. He sat down casually and waited for them to come to a halt before his table, before he deemed it appropriate to let them know he'd taken notice of their presence by looking up at them. It was all about presentation and letting people know where they stood in relation to him (far, far down below). He'd learnt that much at home.

"Nice way of talking back to Mr. Fetchers this morning." One tall guy wearing a PCA sweater (they'd gotten them as welcoming presents when they were accepted into the school) remarked appreciatively.

Logan squinted at him. "That name's supposed to mean anything to me?"

A blonde boy and a rather Hispanic looking one broke into light chuckles at that. Tall guy cracked a small smile.

"The teacher from our English class?"

"Oh, him. " Logan shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, well."

The boys exchanged looks, seemingly coming to a decision. "You mind if we sit here?"

He gestured over to the vacant seats. "Help yourselves."

"Cool." Tall guy gave him a slight wave, when they'd sat down across him. "I'm Drew Jefferson. But everybody just calls me Jefferson. Let's keep it that way."

Logan made a non-committal sound of agreement and looked expectantly at the other boys. They nodded at him, introducing themselves.

"Bill."

"Jaime."

"Davis. 'Sup."

"Omar here."

"Chester."

Logan leaned back in his chair, his half-eaten burger lying quite forgotten on the tablet. With all the casualness in the world, he gestured to himself. "Logan Reese."

"Yeah, so we heard." That Davis kid, known also as 'blond boy', threw in. Jaime leant forward, his voice ever so slightly awed. "Malcolm Reese, the movie producer, is really your dad?"

He grinned at them as if to say 'Oh, well.'

"That's right."

Another round of glances were exchanged, surprised, impressed, amazed, whatever, it didn't really matter, because it was expected. He was used to it. (Didn't mean that he didn't feel quite awesome hearing it, because he totally was. Awesome, that is.) At least finally somebody seemed to catch on, how lucky they were to have him here.

"Whoah…" Jaime breathed, excitement shining on his face.

Bill whacked him over the head, as the others rolled their eyes collectively. "Get a grip, kiddo."

He turned to face Logan.

"So. We were thinking of getting a few of the boys together, you know, all of us newcomers to PCA, for a round of basketball or volleyball or whatever we feel like. You any good at sports, Logan?"

He all but restrained himself from shouting out a loud and clear 'Duh!', because really, wasn't it _obvious_? Even if they were short-sighted, sports were cool, he was cool, it went without saying. But because they seemed to be pretty respectable jocks, not nubs in the slightest (you couldn't really blame them for some star-struckness in his presence), he settled with a pointed look and a wide gesture.

"I grew up in a really big villa in Beverly Hills. You think I spent my childhood reading books in the library?"

They laughed at that, obviously catching his drift. Most likely because they knew the feeling. (Not the Beverly Hills part, but the athletics over books part. Gotta keep remembering that _Logan_ was rich, others were not. It was like a law of nature, only cooler.).

"So you're in?" Jefferson asked, one eyebrow raised. Logan nodded.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

"Cool." Bill said with a smile. "This afternoon, four sharp at the basketball courts. You wanna invite your roommates?"

Logan scoffed. "Have you _seen_ them?"

"No, who are they?" Chester, a lean, red-haired boy asked. Jefferson answered, before Logan had a chance to talk.

"I think he's rooming with this Chase Matthews and a Michael Barrett. Right, Logan?"

"Yeah, I dunno… I think that's them."

"Chase Matthews?" Davis repeated with a half-concealed laugh. "The kid that stumbled into class _twice_ and almost tripped over the Math teacher?"

"Uhuh."

"Uh, wow. Perhaps you shouldn't ask them, then."

"Oh, I don't know, Barrett seems alright. I had physics with him earlier. I think he's played quite a bit of sports back home." Omar, who until now had followed their exchange quietly, put in. Chester and Jaime nodded in agreement. Seeing them, Logan made a face. The prospect of hanging out with a crowd of cool jocks was pretty tempting, but it lost its appeal quickly if he was gonna have to spend more time with one of his lame, irritating roommates. (He didn't easily forgive interrupting his valuable sleeping time. Plus, oh yeah, they seemed like _nubs_.)

"Yeah ….Oh, _today_ at four, you say?" he suddenly cried out in faked realization. "I think I remember that Michael said something about him and Chase checking out the campus cinema to catch a movie at three and a half. Some lame documentary Chase picked out."

It was a blatant lie- and Logan didn't have the _slightest_ clue whatsoever what kind of movie Chase would pick out if given the choice, but as always, lies brought him far. The other boys grimaced at the thought of voluntarily watching a documentary of all things and quickly reconsidered.

"Oh, well, guess it's just you then, Logan."

"Guess so." He replied smugly. It was fun when things worked in his favor. Which, admittedly, they almost always did.

"Good, then…" Jefferson stopped mid-sentence, when a particular trio of boys their age walked past their table. He stifled a laugh. Logan, Bill, Davis and Jaime didn't have quite that much of restraints and broke into full out laughter.

"Oh, my god!" Logan wheezed out after a couple of seconds of loud mirth. "You guys seen those _nerds_?"

"Yeah!" Davis agreed, wiping a tear out of his eyes. "Who in their right mind wears a sweater that says 'Wayne' in bright red letters?"

"Don't forget the 'Galaxy Wars' backpack and the tuck-in shirts!" Jaime added.

"Okay, they're just begging to be messed with!" Bill announced loudly, causing everyone to nod in agreement. "What do you say, we go after them?"

"Yeah!" Chester said enthusiastically. "We should introduce ourselves! Make them feel _really_ _welcome_. After all, we're all going to the same boarding school now, right?"

"God, I've missed messing with nerds. It's been a long summer."

"I know what you mean."

Laughing, the boys stood up. Jefferson quirked an eyebrow at Logan.

"You coming with, Reese?"

A large grin broke out on Logan's face. "Oh, I'm there."

His food tray remained quite forgotten on the table as they ran to catch up with the nerds. Maybe this whole boarding school gig _really_ wasn't that bad after all.

.

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_A/N: Don't worry, I'm not gonna indulge in an OC-fest, but it'd make sense that some boys are gonna take an interest in the resident rich kid and that Logan would search out the presence of jocks at first. Wayne is Firewire's real name, in case anyone's confused. More shenanigans to come soon.  
_

_At this point I'd also love to express my gratitude to the two of you who reviewed, because it made me very happy! I hope somebody continues reading, because as I said, as much fun as it is to write, knowing that somebody takes an interest makes it all the more worthwhile. And if you're in for his interactions with the girls, hold on, it's going to take a couple of chapters, but it's gonna come. Promise._


	3. Irritations

3. Irritations**  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Zoey 101.**_  
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_A/N: Hello to anyone who's still reading and sorry for the long wait. I had fuss with university applications this past week. Thank you once again for the feedback!_

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_

Chase and Michael spent their first two weeks at PCA simply trying to settle in into the unfamiliar environment of a boarding school, far away from home and daily suppers with their families. Every so often, they got lost on their way to class. Even though they'd been given a map before they came here, PCA had one big, confusing campus. Usually, it was Chase who held the map and Michael who complained when they ran in circles.

"Okay, I think we gotta take that turn now and then…"

Michael, as per usual, groaned, cutting Chase off. "Uh, dude, you already said that the last three times, and guess what, we're still where we've started off."

"Well, I'm sorry, but if you got any better idea, let me hear it!" Chase replied irritated, turning the map upside-down for good measure. It didn't help. Oh, stupid palm trees. They all looked the same to him.

Michael stopped dead in his tracks and turned to raise an eyebrow at him. "Hey, are you getting cranky on me?"

"Me? I'm not cranky." Chase said stubbornly and turned the map over again. "You're the one who's being cranky!"

"Hey, now! I know that that is a lie, because I'm only cranky in the morning!"

"It _is_ seven point thirty in the morning!"

"You see that!" Michael cried out with obvious triumph in his voice. He pointed at Chase as if to prod him on. "You're being cranky on me! CRANKY!"

"I'm not cranky!"

"So are!"

"Urgh!" Chase groaned, exasperated and still hopelessly lost.

"Argh!" Michael shot right back, irritated and just as lost.

"…"

"…"

After two more minutes of awkward silence, Chase cleared his throat noisily to break the tension. "Now. Let's try this turn…"

Michael rolled his eyes and began to trail after Chase again. "Oh, lord. _Rescue_ me."

And even more often, they would wish to choke the insufferable brat they had been stuck with. Not that he gave them too much trouble, besides, well existing. To their infinite amazement, Logan, in all his irritating obnoxiousness and 'I grew up in Beverly Hills, I am awesomeness incarnate' glory, had been quick to immerse himself in a group of boys their age. They wouldn't exactly them a group of friends, rather a group of shared interest – all of its members were athletic and more or less annoying-, but the fact that there was someone at all who was able to stand him for longer than a minute was mind-boggling already.

"Psst, Chase."

"…"

"Hey, Chase!"

"…"

"Chase!"

"_**What**_? I'm trying to _sleep_ here."

"What…what is he doing?"

"What is who doing?"

"_Him_!"

"Oh,…I think he's….err….EW, GROSS! Logan, what are you _doing_?"

"Would ya quit yelling?"

"But, why…what…"

"Hey, it's late, I'm tired and I didn't wanna walk all the way to the bathroom, alright?"

"Chase? Did …did…he really just…"

"Yup. Just…out of the window."

"Oh… gross! Thanks for that visual, _Logan_! Now I'm gonna have nightmares! _Disgusting_ nightmares!"

"You two are such girls!"

"All the pretty flowers…"

They did meet up with the other boys of their grade, most of which were actually nice and tolerable, but also quickly established themselves as a dynamic duo. The two boys bonded not only over their shared annoyance at Logan and their discoveries of PCA together, but also a multitude of similar interests, hobbies and humor. On their eleventh day of their stay Chase told Michael of his irrational fear of raccoons and a couple of hours later, as they passed by a member of the school's band Michael made him swear on his life not to tell anyone that he actually played the flute.

They fell into a comfortable rhythm, slowly getting used to their new teachers, new acquaintances and unfamiliar liberties, but of course, some cases of homesickness were not to be avoided. Most of the time neither did mind when the other experienced the Emotion That Should Not Be Named, but it became severely uncomfortable when it hit them at a time when Logan was in their dorm. After a mere week, the boy and his cronies had already discovered every single sports team at PCA and their admission requirements, so, thankfully, he was constantly busy despite giving a damn about schoolwork.

Because apparently, Logan had no concept of homesickness at all. And during the rare occasions that he _was_ there, he liked to make this fact known, much to their mutual chagrin.

"Oh come on, Logan." Chase chastised him one day, as he tried to shield Michael, who had fallen into a funk after his phone call home, from the eyes of their roommate. Logan was throwing a ball at the wall just in order catch it again and start over. He was obviously bored out of his mind and thus had decided to bug them. "Don't tell me you don't miss your home. You know, like a regular human being?"

"Yeah, I miss it. " Logan replied with a sneer and an air of mockery. "My room at home was thirty times as big as this dorm and it had way cooler stuff in it. "

"What about your dad?"

"What about my dad?"

"Well…" Chase looked around for inspiration, because he just did not get this boy at all. "Surely, you must miss him a little?"

Logan drew his eyebrows together in confusion. "Why?"

"Well, because…because…oh, just forget it."

A ball hit Chase 'accidentally' in the head and he tried to ignore the satisfied smirk on his roommate's face. Instead of wasting any more time on Logan, he went back to trying to unfunk Michael.

.

* * *

.

"Oh, hello there, Wayne!"

The three members of the newfound PCA junior science club froze and exchanged quick, panicked glances. They had come to associate that voice and the subsequent teasing laughter with much unpleasantness.

"Uh oh. Martian body snatchers at three o'clock! Approximate collision time: right now!" Small, pudgy Andrew whispered frantically, fingering nervously the screw-driver he'd just been messing around with. Neil, a tall if scrawny blonde, spared him a questioning side glance:

"Who are the Martian body snatchers?"

"_Them_!" Wayne cried out in a hushed voice, pushing up his safety goggles. "Why do you think we have a secret code?"

"Oh. Right."

"Andrew, Neil! How are my good buddies doing on this lovely day?" Horror number one, Bill Summers walked up to them, casually flinging his arms over their shoulders. Andrew let out a small, queasy whimper. Sure enough, some of Bill's friends came to stand before their table, Horror number two Davis Weston plucking Wayne's goggles off his forehead.

"What's all this stuff?" Horror number three Jaime Suarez asked as he gestured towards the pieces of scrap metal on their table. "You nerds trying to build something?"

"Oh yeah!", Wayne yelled defensively, before he stopped to realize that the insults hadn't even been dished out yet. Neil gave him an annoyed look, while Andrew just kept on whimpering.

Horror number four, rich jerk Logan Reese pulled down his dark shades and looked down at him, confusion evident in his voice. He was the only one out of Bill Summers and Drew Jefferson's group who hadn't put them through any sort of physical pain yet, if a lot of emotional one. However, it wasn't because of some sort of backwards honor code – oh, no, rather, as he'd explained to them quite freely, he couldn't bear touch them for fear their supreme nerdiness would repel his perfect physique and cause him to have a rash.

"Dude, he just asked you a question."

"Yeah." Bill applied a little more pressure on their shoulders, as he looked in between of Andrew and Neil. "Don't they teach nerds any manners? You should answer it nicely."

"It's, it's a circuit for a battle robot!" Andrew all but squealed, trembling in Bill's grasp. Neil tried to hush him in vain, glaring sternly at him for his outburst. The jocks all broke into loud laughter.

"Oh, how cute!" Reese (he didn't like it when they called him by his first name, as though they were _associated_ with him) said mockingly. "You're building yourselves a robot friend to play with."

"Maybe you should put it in a dress, so it can be your very first girlfriend!" Davis added chuckling. Jaime high-fived him.

"Hey!" Neil shot back angrily. "This is a quality battle bot, not a children's toy! Besides, you boys wouldn't even know how to _build_ it!"

He earned four incredulous looks for that remark. Reese scoffed, putting his shades back in place. He looked over the nerds' heads at his peers.

"Okay, this is _too_ easy." He looked back at Neil. "Besides, if I wanted one of your cute little toys, I could buy an entire company that sells them."

It was Wayne's one turn to be brave.

"Oh yeah?"

Reese leaned over the table and gave him a patronizing look.

"Oh. Yeah."

The jocks snickered unabashedly as Wayne's face fell.

"Oh."

Rolling his eyes behind his shades, Reese settled back.

"This is boring. Let's get outta here, I can't take any more of this lameness on one day."

"Yeah, you're right." Bill agreed, clapping Neil and Andrew on their backs one more time for good measure (and as an unspoken warning. They got it just fine). "Bye, boys. Have fun nerding on."

"Yes, we'll see you around. Don't worry." Davis added in maliciously and Andrew trembled. Chuckling, he slapped the back of Wayne's head. "Later, nerds!"

"Can you believe something _this_ pathetic exists on this planet?" Bill asked his cronies as they walked off.

"I know, right? Oooh, I'm a science geek, I build robots!"

"Who wants to spend their time with freaking math formulas, screw-drivers and test tubes? You don't get much sadder than that." Reese agreed, shaking his head."_Nerds_."

"Yeah."

"_Totally_."

Both Wayne and Andrew heaved a great sigh of relief, when the jocks finally disappeared out of their sight. Neil glared at their retreating backs. Then he looked at his two fellow science pioneers, a conspiratorial expression blooming on his face.

"They may laugh now." He said obscurely. "But our time will come. And then the force _will_ be with us."

A slow appreciative smirk spread across Wayne's face, but it fell quickly when Andrew let out a loud wail.

"Ew, look." He whined with disgust, plucking a monstrous green _something_ off his back. "He stuck a huge bubble gum to my back!"

.

* * *

.

"So, how is rooming with his obnoxiousness?" Their new buddy Jim, a short kid who absolutely _always_ wore a base cap, asked Chase and Michael one morning, as they sat down for Math class. Logan and his cronies had wasted no time gaining serious notoriousness on campus and thus it wasn't the first time they'd been subjected to sympathy over having to room with him. Quickly replaying the past two weeks in their minds, they exchanged a meaningful look.

"Well, it's uh…" Michael began uncertain.

"…alright." Chase replied after moments of intense thinking. It was almost, sorta true. Except that it wasn't. Naturally, Jim threw him a doubtful look.

"Well.", he defended his point, Michael nodding at his side. Neither of them wanted to look like they couldn't take on Logan's level of jerkiness. "It's not like we see him that often. He's always hanging out with Bill and Jefferson and their jocks."

"I …guess."

"See, if we _cared_, we _could_ say that…"Michael couldn't help but add. "That he's really, like, _really _unconventionaland…"

"…irritating." Chase finished, letting out a sigh. "You know how he's all big on sports, right?"

Jim nodded. "Yeah, I think _everybody_ noticed that."

"Well, would you think the boy's taking his sweaty shirts and shorts to the launderette? Considering, he's got all the money in the world? Yesterday I stumbled over a pile of his dirty clothes and it was like, this high!"

Jim nodded thoughtfully, biting his lip. " I see. But, well, I gotta admit, my roommates aren't that big on cleaning up after themselves as well, there's got to be more than…"

"Jockstraps, Jim!" Michael called out loudly, trying to make him understand. "Jockstraps!"

Jim's face went blank. "Err…oh."

"Yeah."

"_Right_."

They all shuddered at the same time.

.

* * *

.

"Hey, loser."

"Oh, hi Logan, is that your-"

A crumbled (and most likely sweaty judging from the smell) red and white shirt in hand, Chase looked up questioningly at the boy storming inside. Logan brushed past him without sparing him a second glance and grabbed his backpack.

"Bye, loser."

"Hey, I'm-talking-" Faster, than Chase could go after him, Logan was out of the door again. He let out a quiet, indignant huff.

Not. Nice.

With faint disgust visible on his face, Chase made a show out of dropping the sweaty shirt on the single bed. He snorted silently when he saw the rest of his roommate's things, finally unpacked and even neatly arranged (for the time being). Michael wasn't the only one who gave in quickly when Logan waved with a few dollar bills in front of their faces.

He turned to sit down in front of the computer (he'd promised his friends back home to e-mail them once he'd settled in), when the door opened a second time and Michael came in.

"Hi there."

"Hello Michael."

"You seen our 'roommate'?" Michael looked at him, rolling his eyes. "'Cause Mr. Fetchers just asked me to tell him that he wants to see him."

"Why?"

"I dunno. I know I wouldn't want to. Anyway, I gotta look for him. "

Chase chuckled humorlessly. "Well, he was in here. For, like, a second."

The door slammed open and a …shadow, because the boy was moving so fast, his entire figure seemed to be blurry, whisked back in and snatched a no doubt heavily pricy mp3-Player from their desk.

"Forgot that."

"Logan, Mr. Fetchers wants to talk to-"

Michael was mid-sentence when the door closed again and their roommate was all but gone. Mouth still moving, even if no sounds came out, he turned towards Chase. The other boy only shrugged with a resigned expression on his face. So far, everything that needed to be settled regarding their dorm, every rule to be set down in order to prevent squabbles and every run for the janitor when something was off had been between the two of them due to Logan's universal absence from their room. It was like rooming with a ghost, except more annoying, because ghosts didn't spout obnoxious nonsense when you had the misfortune to actually spot them and they didn't leave heaps of unwashed clothing lying around.

Michael threw up his arms helplessly. "Has he been in here for longer than ten seconds besides for sleeping? How can he _possibly_ be so busy all the time?"

"No idea." Chase replied and turned his eyes back to the screen. "We all know he's not doing schoolwork."

Michael shook his head and flopped down on the couch, crossing his arms behind the back of his head.

"Hey, what is this?" He suddenly perked up after a moment of silence and pointed to the opposite side of the room. Chase didn't even look up as he continued typing.

"The new video game console his father sent him. Which _I_ had to get in here, by the way, because of course, _he_ wasn't here. Some …science boys his cronies 'recommended' for the job hooked it up for him."

Michael tilted his head. "Why?"

"He paid them nine bucks. They say he's already got a list with names of people to do stuff for him, including prices, and just today I saw him slip a bill into the janitor's pocket for something."

"Jeez." Sighing, Michael cast him an uncertain look. "This is still only the _second_ week we're here, right?"

Chase nodded with a sigh. He didn't like him, but he figured if there was anything at all to be said for their roommate it was that he certainly had a sense for business. In a horribly twisted, sick and just completely warped way.

.

* * *

.

They were relaxing on Maxwell Hall's roof that second Sunday morning at PCA, gleefully enjoying the fact that they'd finally managed to snatch two canvas chairs before all the older students arrived as they'd wanted to ever since they saw their dorm's roof for the very first time. Chase tinkered a little bit with the brand new guitar his parents had bought him as some sort of initiation gift into this new phase of his life and Michael enjoyed his very first meatless taco, feeling generally at peace.

They were in this all-around content state of laziness, when the sound of angry steps came nearer. Chase glanced up from his guitar, while Michael pushed up his shades only to find a red-faced, angry Logan Reese towering over them.

"You're…standing in my light."

"Okay, who touched my video game console?" Logan barked loudly, stemming both his hands in his side.

The two boys exchanged a look. It wasn't like Logan was in their dorm long enough to use it, anyways, right?

"Uh…"

"I told you, I didn't want you to touch any of my stuff! Do you have any idea how much that thing is worth?"

"A lot…I guess?" Chase shrugged.

"A lot? A lot?" Logan let loose a stunned laugh. "For your information, it's a unique fabrication worth more than all the things that you have got back in our dorm put together!"

"Logan, look…" Michael tried to appease the infuriated boy. It was much too nice a morning to let their roommate ruin it for them and Michael didn't stand tension very well. "Chase and I were just having a little boys' night, yesterday, alright? I mean, you were out, anyway. And you know how it is, two boys, a racing game, lots of sandwiches and peanut butter…"

"So that was you!" Logan yelled out loud, causing both of them to start.

"What?" Chase exclaimed, rubbing his hurting ears. Sheesh.

"_Someone_ got their peanut butter fingerprints all over my hand mirror!"

"Oh c'mon!", Michael waved his hand dismissively, while Chase frowned in confusion. "You've got dozens of these mirrors! Something was stuck between my teeth; I had to look at myself to get it out."

Logan grimaced. "Gross! I can't believe-"

"Wait." Chase interrupted, still bewildered. "Why do you need _dozens_ of _hand mirrors_?"

He earned a look for that that could only be described as 'duh!'.

"Because I am ridiculously good-looking?"

"Ah…" So this was getting stranger every day. "I…apologize. How could I have _not_ realized."

"_Yeah_, I know. Anyway, keep your filthy fingers off my things and _don't_ touch my stuff _ever again_, you get it?"

"Cheese and rice." Michael shook his head at the boy. "Dude, you need to calm down."

"Just don't do it again!"

"Alright, alright!" Chase surrendered and held his hands up in defeat. "I promise, we won't touch your precious things again!"

"Good! And just so you know." Logan turned towards Michael, pulling out a peanut-butter smeared hand mirror out of his left pocket. He shoved it right under his nose. "You are gonna _pay_ for that."

Michael cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Err…"

Logan straightened and glared at the both of them.

"Bye, losers."

That said, he left in a huff, leaving both of them to look at each other, unsure of what just had transpired.

.

* * *

.

"Okay, this is brutal!"

Chase started, looking up from his textbook in order to see a dripping wet Michael in swimming trunks standing before him.

"Michael! What happened?"

"There…there were these _sick _people in the pool and they…they…" Michael panted heavily, gesturing wildly with his hands, but Chase could hardly make anything out of it. Just before the boy was able to continue his story, a mocking voice rang over to them.

"Oh Mikey!" Both boys groaned simultaneously when they recognized Logan and some of his cronies in the distance, laughing their heads off. "We're going for a swim. You wanna come with or you're too scared of evil sharks biting off your toes? Oooh!"

"Sharks?" Chase repeated confusedly. "You thought there was a shark in our pool?"

"Why, _no, I did not._" Michael cried out loudly, so that the other boys would hear him. It did not help much. They made ridiculous chicken impressions of him, before they wandered off, Logan laughing the hardest of them all. Michael gritted his teeth.

"So, talk to me. Why did you think there was a shark in the pool?" Chase asked, before he could get his anger out.

"'Cause I was pranked! They had this fake fin and it looked so real! I'm telling you, anybody would have been fooled."

"Yeah." Chase tried to remain serious, but failed horribly. "Anybody who forgets that the pool is filled with chlorine water and far off the sea."

"Hey, don't give me lip!" Michael said with irritation. "I hate prank week."

"I know what you mean." Chase nodded. He winced just thinking about how he'd been pranked the day before yesterday. It seemed to be some sort of initiation ritual to put new PCA students through great emotional and physical pain. Or, well, prank them. Whatever.

"So was it them?" Chase asked, tilting his head in the direction that Logan and the rest had wandered off to. The look in Michael's eyes took a turn to positively murderous.

"_No_. It was a fine traditional, older guys prank younger guys thing. Didn't stop _him_ from getting everybody in our grade to watch and videotape it!"

Chase bit the inside of his mouth very hard in order not to burst out laughing at the seething expression on Michael's face.

"Well, he told you, you were gonna 'pay' for ruining his little vanity mirror."

"I swear, one of these days…"

"C'mon, it's not worth the trouble…" Chase tried to calm him down in a sing-song voice. "I know we all want to, but neon-orange looks horrible on you."

The other boy just continued glaring over his shoulder.

"Hey, you wanna catch a movie in our dorm later?" Chase asked suddenly, when he remembered a wonderful little detail that'd surely lighten up Michael's mood. "Logan's out in the gym tonight, shooting hoops with Jefferson and Bill. They…'got' permission by our dorm advisor. Meaning, that they bribed him."

Michael's expression brightened considerably in the matter of seconds. "No kidding?"

Chase nodded contently. "No kidding. An _entire_ _evening_ without his obnoxiousness."

"Well, count me in." They high-fived, grinning broadly. However, Chase couldn't help but ask:

"You really fell for the fake fin trick?"

Scowling, Michael bend down, ripped the textbook from his hands and whacked it at his head.  
"It was a really convincing fake fin, okay?"

"Alright, alright, enough with the violence!" Chase quickly put up his hands in defense.

Laughing, the two _friends_ went to their dorm.

.

* * *

.

"Yo, Reese!" Jefferson called out that evening and passed the ball over to Logan, trying to outrun Chester and Davis who were blocking him. "How's it coming with your two nubs? You gone crazy yet?"

"Nah…" Logan said, dodging Chester's attack. "I guess, as long as they stay out of my face, it's okay."

"You sure about that?" Jaime asked, giving him a look, as he tried to take the ball from his hands. Logan smirked inwardly. Ha, think again, no upstaging the one and only Logan Reese. "They seem pretty pathetic."

"They're annoying, yeah." Logan admitted, rolled his eyes and passed the ball to Omar who scored it straight. They high-fived. "Especially Chase. But after a while, you learn to tune them out."

They decided to hang around the courtyard a little longer, even after they'd finished their game, drinking Blix, reveling in their awesomeness, talking about stuff. (Purely manly, important stuff, of course.) Just as Chester and Jaime were regaling a tale of how they'd busted up the nerds today, Logan's phone went off. He groaned as he read the text.

"Logan, go get your laundry washed already or we're throwing it out right now." He mimicked Chase's voice in an overly girly way. Scoffing, he pocketed the cell phone (stupid Chase getting their DA to force him to give his roommates his number in cases of 'emergency'). The other boys shook their heads.

"Nubs…"

"Well, whatever. I'm not letting these two morons push me around."Logan continued with arrogant resolve, throwing his finished Blix can into the bin a couple of feet away. "I'm way too awesome for that."

"Yeah, so we've heard." Chester replied with a roll of his eyes. "Multiple times."

On catching his sarcastic tone of voice, Logan whirled around on his heel.

"What'd you just say?"

His back turned on Bill and Davis, he didn't see how they silently gestured to him and gave a non-verbal sign of 'money, lots and lots of money' to Chester. The boy paused, giving Logan an uncertain smile.

"Nothing? I…I said nothing important. Hey, any of you guys wanna go play another round? I'm all for it!"

"Yeah, let's do that!" Bill cried enthusiastically and the boys quickly scrambled up to their feet.

"Uh, sure." Logan said hesitatingly, but shrugged his sudden, unexpected and lame doubts off in order to catch up with them.

.

* * *

.

_A/N: I kinda hate how the so-called 'nerds' are almost always played for laughs and ridicule in Dan Schneiders shows (except for the nerdy main characters who are being made 'cool' so that they don't fall into the same category). But the ones in Zoey 101 were douchebags most of the time, so I don't feel to bad about having them being picked on here. This chapter's rather...sloppy I guess, but I really couldn't fuss with it any longer. The part about peeing out of the window just about killed a part of my girly soul, but, well, Chase talked about it in season two, so I had to fit it in here. The prank part is of course taken from the flashback in 'Prank Week'. Last but not least, Jim was mentioned as Chase's buddy in the pilote but never heard of after ever again.  
_

_Hope you like it and hopefully until next time!  
_


	4. Decisions

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Zoey 101.

* * *

_A/N: Hello again to those of you who are still reading. :) Today's update is a bit short, but I need a head start, because I wouldn't like reaching the end of what I've written so far and leave you with nothing for weeks. I've been accepted into the university I wanted and need to prepare life abroad, so free time is rare._ _As always, the feedback I have received is very much appreciated!_

* * *

4. Decisions

* * *

.

It was a lovely, sunny day outside, but then again, there was apparently no time of the year when that wasn't the case at PCA. Stumbling his way over various items and gimmicks that Michael, but mostly _Logan_ had left on the floor; Chase sat down at their dorm's desk, grabbed a piece of paper and cast a glance outside.

The mess in their dorm irked him. One of these days he would have to _force_ his roommates to clean up after themselves (and of course that meant, mostly _Logan_). But he dreaded the conversation already. Michael was great, however, he enjoyed his freedom of being in an all-male environment a bit too much and Logan…well, he was _Logan_. He'd already found out who on campus to pay whatever it was he needed to get done and he sometimes expressed genuine disbelief when they asked him to do something _himself_.

Focusing back on his paper, Chase let the past three and a half week pass through his mind, absent-mindedly nibbling on his pen. Of course it would have been simpler and quicker to write an e-mail, but there was something about putting his thoughts on paper that he liked. He supposed he took after his grandmother in this respect.

"What are you doing?"

Chase slumped back in his chair when the unfortunately already all-too familiar voice sounded from their dorm's entrance and rolled his eyes. "Hello again _Logan_."

Logan took a bite out of an apple and came over to him. He tried to glance over Chase's shoulder.

"It's awesome weather outside and you're sitting in here, _writing_? That is _so_ lame on _so_ many levels."

Chase bit back a nasty comment that resurfaced in his mind, and instead calmed himself enough to reply:

"Well, what are _you_ doing here, then?"

"Picking up my basketball?"

If there was anything that Chase had learnt during the short period he'd already spent at PCA it was in how many ways a person could convey both obviousness and the message of 'You're dumb' in one tone of voice.

"Anyhow, what're you writing? Your diary, perhaps? Like a good little girl?"

Logan batted his eyelashes mockingly, before breaking out into self-satisfied laughter. Chase sighed.

"No, Logan. If you must know, I'm writing a letter back home."

Logan furrowed his eyebrows together, uncomprehending. "Why?"

"Because, it is a _nice_ thing to do." Chase said with fake patience."I am a nice person so it follows that I like doing nice things. I know, these things aren't easy to grasp, when you're an uninvolved party, but…"

"Didn't you parents call you, like, yesterday?"

Chase looked up at him, taken aback. It seemed unlikely his self-centered, never too long in their dorm roommate would even take notice of such things, let alone remember them.

"Uh, yeah…" he answered, shifting a little bit uncomfortably in his chair." But we just talked for a couple of minutes, or so. I'm just…you know writing a bit in detail about my first impressions of PCA, the people I've met, what we do for fun, all that kind of stuff. My mom and my gran like to know every last bit. It's a bit annoying, but what can you do? "

"In detail?" There was still an utter lack of comprehension plastered all over Logan's face. "Why would they care that much about what you do when they're not around?"

"Because…well, because…" Chase was flabbergasted at how a person could not grasp the concept of something that simple. He extended his arms in a helpless gesture. "'Cause they're my family, that's _why_. They're _supposed_ to care about these sorts of things! Maybe you should try it sometime, you know."

"What? _Write_ to my _dad_?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Logan chortled, before giving him a disbelieving look. "My dad's been in _Japan_ shooting a new _blockbuster movie _fortwo months now_._ You really think he's gonna care about a girly letter about the color of our dorm?"

"Hey, that's not the sort of thing I write about-wait." Chase's eyes widened. "Your dad's in Japan? But…didn't he see you off or anything on your first day here?"

"No." Logan replied with a casual shrug. "But I got Chauncy to look after my stuff, so it's cool."

"It's _cool_?" There were all sorts of things wrong about a father not seeing his son off on his first day at a boarding school, Chase was sure of it. He couldn't imagine his parents traveling around on another continent on such a day, knowing they wouldn't see him for the next few months.

"Yeah, what's the big deal?"

"Uh, nothing…nothing." A small stirring…the tiniest flicker of sympathy flashed through Chase's mind, but it died down quickly, when Logan threw the remainders of his apple in the trash, picked up his basketball and remarked tauntingly:

"Well, have fun writing to your momsy and gramsy! Oh, if you're wondering; while you're in here being a sissy, I'll be out there, being awesome."

Chase rolled his eyes. Perhaps he couldn't blame Mr. Reese for being glad to be rid of this boy for a whole semester.

But the next night, Chase swore he spotted a crumbled paper in the trash with a lot of crossed out lines and a word looking suspiciously close to 'dad'. It could've been Michael's, but there was one line that was neither crossed out nor smudged and it read: 'Forget this. I am awesome.'

.

* * *

.

"You ever thought about it that the banana is a really funky fruit, Chase?"

"Uh, no Michael." Chase shifted in his bed, slightly confused. "Can't say I have."

"Well, it is." His friend's voice rang from above. "Do some thinking now. For one thing, it's yellow, right?"

"And…?"

"Yellow's a funny color. I mean, just say it: yellow. Yellow. Yeellooww."

"Yeah. _Yellow_. Pretty funny. I…_guess_."

"Okay then. Next…" Michael continued. Chase shook his head. His friend sometimes had the weirdest things to think about. He appreciated that, because their humor was pretty similar and Michael's amusing ramblings were pretty inspiring, when he tried to think of a small sketch or whatever, but sometimes it was downright strange. "It's shaped like a bow. Why would anyone shape a fruit like a bow, if they didn't think: 'Hey, let's make people stop to think about why that fruit isn't straight, but curved?"

"Uh…yeah…"

"The banana's like the ultimate troll in the realm of fruits, is all I'm saying."

"Okay."

"And it's already packed up for you in a way that makes it really easy to open it. As if somehow, the banana tree knew that hungry people were gonna come to eat its babies and it just thought: 'Well, they don't got much time, so I'm gonna package it really user-friendly.'"

"Sure."

"Well, all that put together, is just funky. Don't you think it's funky?"

"It's funk-tastic, I think."

"Yeah."

A loud, exasperated groan interrupted their musings.

"Don't you two clowns ever _shut up_?"

Chase rolled his eyes (which had become a real habit now), before rolling over his side to look over at the single bed. "We're trying, to have a conversation here, you know."

"Yeah." Michael's outraged voice chimed in. "Why don't you just go back to sleep and have little Logan dreams about yourself and….yourself? Like you always do."

Logan propped his upper body up and glared at them. Which was pretty impressive, seeing as their dorm was already pitch-black.

"I was _trying_ to sleep here. Until your stupid chit-chat woke me up."

"Hey!" Michael defended angrily. "We were talking about really important things here."

"Oh, yeah. "Logan mocked back mercilessly. "Like how the banana's just so funky?"

"Oh, come on now, Logan." Chase tried to pacify the argument that was on the brink of breaking out. "You never talk about random, silly stuff with _your_ friends just because?"

There was a pause, which was somewhat unexpected. Then, Logan's voice rang back over to them, louder, more annoyed and laced with more blatant obviousness than ever before.

"No."

"Uhm." Chase stuttered intelligently, a bit taken aback. "Oh."

"So what do you talk about then?" Michael asked confused. Sure, there were a lot of topics that most boys loved to talk about like sports, games, girls whatsoever, but that was stuff you could always go on about with your acquaintances, too. The cool thing about Chase was that he never minded any of the utterly random and quirky topics that came to Michael's mind at the moment. That was how he knew he'd found a friend. This easy comfortableness to talk about anything and nothing.

"What's this, the twenty questions?" Logan answered rudely. "We play sports, we play games, we hang out and we bug nerds. Who needs talking? We're _guys_."

Chase didn't really know how to reply to that. He didn't really care what Logan did as long as he paid somebody to clean up after him, but well, he couldn't help but think…_were _his cronies his friends_?_ Admittedly, it seemed unlikely. Who would want to be _friends_ with _that_? And did he even need them? The answer to the second seemed to be a resounding 'no', too.

"Besides." Logan suddenly spoke up again. "I still say that your so-called 'conversation' was just really stupid."

"It was a quality conversation!" Michael fired back immediately. "Maybe you're just a lousy audience!"

"Oh yeah? Well, why don't you two losers get your faces on camera and make a show where you chatter on about your 'quality' topics? Then we'll _see_ what a real _audience_ thinks! You could call it 'The Chase and Michael Super Lame Night Show'."

"Okay, now you're just being…"

"Look boys!" Chase interrupted his friend's impending rant, because frankly, it was going to grate on his nerves if the other two boys started to fight now. "I think we should all just keep it down now and fall asleep, alright?"

"Hey, what I've been saying this entire-"

"Quiet, Logan."

There were faint chuckles coming from the upper bed bunk. Chase raised an eyebrow in the dark.

"You too, Michael."

"Oh, man."

He sighed. "Good night, everyone!"

"Night."

"Whatever, losers."

It was only in that half-asleep state before he drifted off completely that a sudden thought sprung up in Chase's mind.

'_The Chase and Michael Show', hmm?_

His roommate was stupid, but perhaps he was on to something.

.

* * *

.

Two days later, they were running across the campus. Evidently, this didn't stop Michael from regaling one of his one thousand and one tales of the weird things that happened to him all day.

"So anyway, I was all like 'no way, man!' and he was all like 'yes, way man!' and then I said 'Dude, that doesn't even make any sense, so he said-"

"Hey, Michael!" Chase interrupted his friend and nudged his elbow to wait. They had overslept a little and were on the verge of running late for English class (their first period), but he still stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted the assembled crowd near the fountain. "Look at that!"

"What—Why?"

Despite themselves and their tardiness, they made their way over to the crowd. Today, they were in high spirits, anyways, because after the initial shock of having missed their alarm clocks going off, they had to discover that the space normally occupied by Logan's single bed was vacant. Apparently it hadn't taken longer than three and a half weeks for the boy to tire of them and ask to be moved out of their dorm. They'd been positively ecstatic.

That feeling of general euphoria wilted in a split-second when they managed to push through the laughing and hollering crowd and came face to face with that very same single bed. Around them, people were pointing at and taunting the person huddled under the blanks. They shared a look, sighed and simultaneously said with an air of resignment:

"Prank week."

For a couple of minutes they just stayed there, watching the scene. As the panicked cries from under the blanket grew quieter, however, it seemed that the majority of spectators lost interest. Among the slowly dispersing crowd, Chase spotted several faces of the boys Logan hung out with after classes. None seemed very much inclined to help, or at least feel sorry for their… acquaintance?

"Well, I could pretend that I didn't enjoy this." Michael remarked with a grin as most of the audience had scampered off and turned to leave. "But my momma taught me not to lie."

"Yeah…" Chase agreed, but suddenly, something clicked in his mind. "Hey. Wait a minute. There's no way he's gonna make it back to our dorm and to English class on time! I mean, _we're_ running late already!"

Michael sent him a funny look. "So? He never shows up on time."

"Yes, but Mr. Fetchers said that if he showed up late just one more time, he is going to give him detention all Friday afternoons for the next three weeks."

His friend still didn't know what he was trying to tell him.

"And I repeat: So?"

"So…" Chase drew out the word, uncertain himself why he was even bothering. "The try outs for the newcomer's basketball team are the Friday after next Friday!"

They'd all been looking forward to that, ever since it'd been announced three days ago. Even though he was typically not much of a sportsman, Chase did enjoy basketball a lot and Michael had told him that he had two grand passions when it came to physical activities: throwing the round orange thing and football. Logan, the designated jock, of course, had talked of nothing else but how he would totally rock their basketball team.

It was tempting to make him pass up the chance to join. Even though Chase didn't like to admit it, from what he'd seen of Logan's play, there was no way that they would _not_ let him enter the team. Unless of course, he spent the day of the try-outs in detention.

"Well…" Michael looked around helplessly, trying to appear indifferent, but Chase had learnt enough about him to know that it wasn't in Michael's nature to hold serious grudges against anyone and be petty about something like this. "Why would we care about that?"

"Oh, you know…he's our roommate…" At Michael's deadpanned expression, Chase faltered. "Okay, I know he's not a good person at all….like… really _at all_… but…_we_ are."

His friend made a last attempt to appear uncaring and shrugged. "He wouldn't help us."

Chase laid his hand on Michael's arm. There was a melodramatic tone in his voice (because frankly, all horrendously stupid decisions should be celebrated with some drama).

"_We_ are good people."

A loud, unhappy groan escaped Michael's lips and he glared disdainfully at the blankets hiding their roommate. "Alright. But he better be grateful."

Chase grimaced. "Not likely."

"Yeah, I know."

With a sigh, they walked up to the bed.

"Hey Logan! It's us. You can come out now. Everybody's gone."

He seemed to hesitate for a second, but after a few breaths, Logan peeked out from under the blankets. His cautious gaze flickered over their faces.

"Uh…"

In an exercise of utter selflessness and magnamity, Chase slung his backpack from his shoulder, rummaged through its pockets and pulled out his English textbook and a pen. Bewildered Logan sat up, the blanket slipping to the ground.

"Here, you can take my book." An alarming thought flittered through Chase's mind. "And my shirt and shoes! You can borrow Michael's pants."

"Dude!" Michael yelled and Chase flashed him an apologetic smile. Logan just continued staring at them, as they shrugged off the respective pieces of their clothing.

"What…what are you doing?"

"Saving your hiney, that's what." Michael snarled through gritted teeth, while sending Chase another death glare. Clearly, taking off his pants in the middle of campus had not been in his plans for today.

"Here." They shoved the things into their completely taken off guard roommate's arms. "Now get yourself to English class, before it's too late!"

An undefined expression passed over Logan's face, before he shook himself, leapt off the bed and hastily dressed. Faint disbelief was audible in his voice, as he turned to look at them.

"You…you are _so_ _stupid_."

Shaking his head, he whirled on his heel and raced for the English building. Chase pointedly kept his gaze anywhere except on his friend, but he felt the nonverbal expression of 'Didn't I tell you?' conveyed in the look Michael gave him.

"Maybe… that's his way of saying thanks?" he tried weakly and wasn't even surprised when the inevitable slap to the back of his head came.

"Yeah. Wonderful." Michael rolled his eyes. Resigned, they both lifted the single bed off the ground and carried it towards their dorm. "And now I'm not only a delinquent, but also out in public without my pants! You know what my grandma's gonna do to me, if she finds out?"

"Nope." Chase shook his head. They both blushed bright red when the first wolf whistles and giggles came their way. "But you're allowed to take me down with you, when she does. If that makes you feel any better."

Michael gave him a look.

"Barely."

.

* * *

.

_A/N: I found the prank pulled on Logan the funniest, if only because he acts so terrified in that one short flashback in 'Prank Week'. :) I don't have much else to say this time around, so I'll just say thanks for reading and hopefully till next time!_


	5. Fouls

**Catharsis**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Zoey 101.**

* * *

5. Fouls

* * *

.

That afternoon they were surprised to find Logan in their dorm instead outside with his cronies playing basketball or picking on a gaggle of nerds. (It was nasty, but Chase had to admit that this Wayne kid sort of had it coming.) There was an awkward silence when they entered. Not that they didn't share any other classes with each other, but there had been a great deal of other students separating them. They didn't quite have that luxury here.

After a few minutes of staring at the walls, blowing their noses, throwing ping pong balls at the walls and hundreds of other things to avoid eye contact, neither Chase nor Michael could take it any longer. Glancing at each other for reassurance, Michael was the first one to break the silence – he couldn't stand tension. It made his stomach act up.

"Look, Logan…"

Logan jumped at the sound of his name and regarded them carefully. Chase sighed.

"You don't owe us anything, alright? It's all good and done and we can all just forget about it."

For a moment, the sheer ridiculous hope that there was something human in their roommate after all blossomed in Chase's mind, as Logan opened and closed his mouth, but it was shattered into tiny little pieces as his face suddenly broke out into a relieved smirk.

"Oh, _good_. 'Cause I don't do debts and especially not to losers."

Michael turned to Chase with a deadpanned look in his eyes, before rolling them.

"Great. I guess _that's_ settled then."

"Guess so."

Taking refuge into three different corners of the room, Chase grabbed his guitar, Michael pulled out his Geography homework and Logan sprawled out on his bed, plugging his brand new mp3 player in and choosing to ignore their presence. Even so, the fact that their downright obnoxious roommate didn't leave to meet up with his cronies once for the remainder of the day didn't escape Chase's notice.

And strangely enough, he was okay with it. At least a little bit.

"Urgh!"

Frustrated, Chase watched the ball bounce off the basket. He was tired from his classes, feeling homesick again, because he'd gotten off the phone with his grandmother an hour ago and the try outs for the basketball team were tomorrow morning. It was all a big blah in his head and the stupid ball just wouldn't comply!

He bend down to pick the ball up again, for what felt the twenty seventh time already, got into position and-

"Your footing is all wrong."

Startled, Chase jumped on the spot and hurled the ball far away into the bushes. Pressing one hand to his heart, he turned around and saw Logan in all his jerk jock glory passing over to him, casually carrying a basketball under his right arm.

"Don't do that!" he gasped. "My heart could've stopped!"

That statement earned him one of Logan's trademarked 'I can't believe something this pathetic exists on this planet' looks, but he found that in a twisted way he was starting to get used to them. While Logan wasn't exactly warming up to them in any way, Chase couldn't help but feel that he'd hung around him and Michael a little bit more often this past week. It was small things like sitting down at their table instead of the neighboring one at breakfast or returning earlier to their dorm from one of his outings with his cronies, but they counted. Somewhat.

Of course it had led to them butting heads more frequently, too.

"Here, watch this." Logan pushed him aside and assumed the position Chase had just tried to pull off. "You need to bring you body axis into the right direction. You can't do that if your footing is off."

The ball scored straight. Logan caught it bouncing off the ground and passed it over to him.

"You try."

"Uh…sure." Chase spared him a befuddled gaze, but decided to concentrate on the ball rather than this suspicious… niceness. An exasperated groan escaped Logan as Chase tried to mimic the shot.

"No, that's all wrong! Just do it like I _showed_ you."

"I'm trying here!"

"Well, try harder!"

A couple of misguided shots driving his unlikely tutor near the brink of insanity and even a few more shots actually scoring later, Chase passed the ball back to his roommate and wiped the sweat of his forehead.

"You really know basketball."

A complacent grin slid onto Logan's features. "Yep."

"So then…why would _you_ help _me_ with my shots?"

"Because." Logan said simply with a shrug. "I hate playing with amateurs. And from what I've seen you're one of the taller guys of our grade which means they're likely gonna let you join the team. You know, even though you're awful."

"Gee…Thanks?"

"Hey, hey!" Chase whirled around at the sound of Michael's voice. He ran over the basketball court to them, doing that silly secret-handshake thing with Chase they had jokingly come up with while watching a movie earlier that week. Somehow, it had just stuck.

"So…"Michael said, his gaze flickering in between them. "What's going on here?"

"Well, Logan here just…helped me with my shots?" It sounded ridiculous even to Chase's own ears.

Logan stretched out his arms as if to say 'Yeah, well'. "I'm just showing him how the master does it."

"Oh, you think you're such a big shot, eh?" Michael asked challenging, but without real animosity. Logan nodded with an air of obviousness.

"Alright then." Michael's bag pack slid to the ground. "Let's see what you've got, Richie Rich."

Logan rolled his eyes. "You're on."

An hour later they leaned against the basketball court's fence, out of their breath, but strangely energized. As Chase reached for yet another bottle of water, gulping the cool liquid down in hasty sips, Michael looked up lazily and punched Logan's shoulder.

"You know…that was actually kinda fun. You're pretty good at basketball."

"I know. And you're…not horrible."

"Ha, ha, ha.", Michael turned to face Chase, muttering under his breath:

"Can you believe him?"

Chase shrugged, still drinking.

"Yo, Reese!" A voice carried over to them and they looked up to spot a group of Logan's usual cronies. "We're off to bug the nerds from the science club. You coming? "

"Yeah, give me a sec!" Logan stood, grabbing his basketball and dribbling it as he walked over. Not quite looking at them, he called back to Chase and Michael over his shoulder:

"We should do this again some time. Later!"

They were giving small nods of acknowledgement, before they noticed _what_ they were doing and to _whom_ . Pausing for a split second, both of them shook their heads.

.

* * *

.

"So, I guess your roommates both made it into the team." Jefferson remarked casually, as the boys went to the locker room after an intense afternoon of playing, a week later. Logan pulled his sweaty shirt over his head, throwing it into his locker, because he didn't really care what happened to it afterwards.

"Huh? Oh yeah."

"I told you, Barrett's got real game." Omar called from the doorway, causing Bill to frown at him.

"Yeah, but Matthews is a real nub. And Barrett's, like, best friends with the boy. That just makes him a nub by association."

"True. But hey, which one of you would've thought that Matthews would actually ace that shot? Last time I saw the dude play, he always had the most awkward of footings you'd ever seen!"

"I'm just surprised this bushy head of his didn't, like, make him trip over, because it's so heavy."

"Yeah, haha, did you see how Barrett tried to cover up for him, when he did fall afterwards? _Tripped_ over a small stupid _rock_?!"

"Pansy."

"Totally."

"Well, I say, there should be, like, a law against somebody that clumsy joining an actual sports team."

The other boys all nodded heartily at Bill's words. However, glancing over his shoulder back at Logan, who was rummaging through his locker in order to get ready to shower, Davis couldn't help but call out at him:

"Hey Logan, why so quiet? You always have something to say about the two of them."

"Uh, yeah." Logan's face resurfaced from behind the locker's door. He didn't quite seem to meet the eyes of the boys who stared expectantly at him. "But I was just thinking. Should I get that Japanese shampoo my dad's butler told me about or the one I've used for like a year now? The other's newer, but this one's still more expensive."

Jaime and Chester exchanged a bewildered glance.

"Why do you care so much about your hair?"

Logan tsk'd, sending Jaime a disdainful look, before patting the mess on Chester's hair.

"Figures that _you_ would ask that."

He skipped past them in order to go showering, when Bill's voice called him back once more.

"Wait! We're gonna go to the beach later. You coming?"

"Oh, uh." Logan stopped and turned around, disappointment clearly written all over his face. "I totally would, but I got this new Speed Racer game from my dad and I sorta told my roommates that I was gonna test it with them. You know, so they'll finally stop bugging me about cleaning up my corner."

"Oh, okay then." Bill shrugged, slightly confused. "Later."

"Bye."

His self-assured grin was more of a grimace, but hurling inside the bathroom, Logan knew that there was nobody that could even come close to him when it came to playing people. As he left, he still caught the faint whisper.

"Isn't this, like, the third time he's blown us off now?"

_Fourth_.

.

* * *

.

Neither Chase nor Michael came from backgrounds that were particularly out of the norm or well…interesting. They had their fixed set of parents, siblings and grandparents, a nice house and an average upbringing in terms of money. However, with Logan as their roommate they quickly had to realize that there were a lot of parenting styles out there and in Logan's specific case that meant unlimited access to luxury articles of any kind and little repercussions or restraints. The first few weeks at PCA the fact had meant little to them, since Logan was quick to bite their heads off, if they so much as thought of touching his belongings (which of course did not stop him from using their stuff without permission), but as time went on, they came to appreciate it.

Because if there was one thing Logan was unable to resist it was a chance to brag.

They were browsing the Internet, watching dozens of lame cartoons and laughing at them all the same, when Logan (without knocking, as always), blazed through the door into their dorm. They gave a small wave as he entered. It was not that they'd become friends with him (if such thing was at all possible with the likes of Logan Reese), but they'd learned to tolerate his presence to a certain degree (and in small doses). It was that comfortable 'I guess we're stuck with each other and I don't really hate your guts, so let's hang out for a while' routine and it suited them quite alright.

"You guys won't believe what I got!"

"A charming personality?" Chase guessed innocently. "You're right, we don't believe it."

Logan made a face at him. Michael chuckled lightly, but chose not to comment. He just wasn't wired to really dislike somebody forever and sometimes, Chase suspected that he was far less put off by Logan's skewed schemes and world views than he was. After all, Michael had taken that one hundred dollar bill, right? Besides, ever since Logan had experienced firsthand that he was no lightweight when it came to sports, it seemed he had risen a slight bit in his esteem which, in turn hadn't escaped Michael's attention.

"Yeah, yeah, just look at _this_. And admire my awesome, while you're at it."

"Dude!" Michael's jaw dropped. "That's the new SpeedRacer 2! Has that even been released yet?"

"It _has_ been in Japan." Logan replied smugly.

"Your dad sent it to you in the mail?"

"Yup. And since there's nobody cool around to test it, I guess you two nubs have to play it with me."

Chase crossed his arms. "Hey, we're not gonna play anything with you if you're gonna be that way."

Michael leapt up, excitement clearly evident in his voice.

"I'm playing!"

Logan sent Chase a look that said 'See?', causing the latter to pout. They settled onto the couch, pulling Logan's gaming port over. It took Chase quite a bit of self-control not to remark upon the fact that Michael was just touching one of Logan's precious possessions, but as soon as they'd started up the game, the boys became oblivious to his existence, anyhow. Watching them, Chase felt his own fingers twitch. Most wouldn't peg him for it, based on his clumsiness, but he was a lethal video-gamer.

Three and a half rounds of watching and he sacrificed his dignity, succumbing to the call of the new video game.

They spend the rest of the afternoon in front of the game, but after Chase had beaten them both for the twentieth time, both Logan and Michael began to become cranky. Grumbling under their breaths, they called for a close, shutting the game off, sending a few glares his way. Chase shrugged with a small smile, before he slumped against the back of the couch.

"So, your dad's always getting you the latest stuff?" he asked.

Logan nodded. "Uhuh."

"Man, all my parents have got me is a house full of girls and then some. Must be fun having a rich and world famous movie producer as your dad." Michael added wistfully. The self-satisfied smirk on Logan's face widened.

"That's right. But hey, we can't all be brilliant, ridiculously handsome and filthy rich. I just happen to be lucky."

Both Chase and Michael rolled their eyes collectively at _that_.

"So…have you ever been on a movie set before?"

"Have _I_ ever been on a movie set before?" Logan stared at Chase, as if he'd lost his mind. "Dude. I've been _everywhere_. I've been backstage, watched the filming, met all the stars. Lorina Curtz? Yeah, not nearly as hot in person. I've been homeschooled, which is why my dad's _always_ taking me when he's shooting a big movie."

"Except this time."

The smirk slid off Logan's face in an instant.

"What?"

Chase shifted in his seat, explaining his train of thought. "Well, you said that he's currently shooting a movie in Japan and since you're here and not in Japan – and I'm pretty sure this isn't Japan-"

"Yeah, you'd have landed headfirst in a pile of raw fish already, if it was." Michael added good-naturedly.

"-I'm guessing that this time he didn't…"

Logan jumped up from the couch.

"Hey, what's it to you?! "He demanded angrily. Chase held up his hands in a placating manner, startled by his roommate's sudden outburst.

"Nothing, I just…"

"If you must know, _I_ didn't _want_ to go! It's just some fancy, star-packed blockbuster shooting in the centre of Tokyo. I'm much rather here."

Michael and Chase exchanged a look. "You… sure about that?"

Logan scoffed. "Yeah, I'm sure!"

"Well, good, 'cause it just seemed that you…"

They didn't get any further, because Logan turned their back on them and rushed off towards the entrance of their room. "Ugh, you guys are such _girls_. Is that what being average does to people? I'm _outta_ here. _Bye_."

The door, once again, with a crash and Chase and Michael were left in awkward silence.

After a beat, Michael glanced at Chase.

"Hey Chase. Two outta three?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

.

* * *

.

The next day after class, Chase was positively exhausted. They'd gotten homework in every period and just now, in history, their teacher had given out an essay assignment that was due tomorrow. After all, they were only sixth graders, their teacher had replied to their protests. Seven hundred lousy words. What world-shaking matters were taking up _their_ schedule, anyway?

He was on his way back to their dorm, his head hanging low, when a hand suddenly shot out from somewhere and pulled him behind a corner. Stumbling, he came to a halt only to recognize Logan as cause of the sudden assault. Bewilderment, but also the stirrings of guilt passed through Chase's mind. After yesterday's incident, Logan hadn't talked to either of them for the rest of the day and taken off for breakfast before they got up this morning.

"Hi, Logan. What's up?"

The other boy seemed to hesitate for a second, before he gave a sigh and looked at him. An as of yet unseen, genuinely troubled expression shone in his eyes.

"Chase…I thought about what you said yesterday. About my dad."

"Oh…" Chase replied carefully neutral. Logan gave another sigh.

"And…I realized you were right. I mean, my dad's always taken me everywhere and I mean sure, he didn't bother with me most of the time, but he was there…_somehow_ right? So then suddenly, when he just dumped me here, I felt…"

Sympathy clouded over Chase face. "Like he abandoned you?" he offered.

Logan nodded forcefully, seemingly glad that Chase caught on so fast.

"Yeah, kinda. I mean…doesn't he even care?"

Chase was slightly freaked out to have this conversation with _Logan_ of all people, but coming from a loving family he couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy. So he said the first thing that came to mind…it always seemed to work in the movies.

"Logan, I'm sure your dad's proud of you."

However that statement seemed to crumble whatever was left of Logan's spirits.

"But that's just the thing. I haven't _done_ anything to make him proud, since I've been here. I mean, if I fail that history paper for tomorrow's class, I'm headed for a straight D record! Perhaps he'll give up on me. I'm just his loser of a son."

Maybe it was because Chase was a genuinely nice person at the core, or because he was tired and exhausted, or because the world had just been turned upside down, but at this glorified moment of pity, his mouth ran faster than his brain.

"Hey", he nudged Logan slightly. "Just this once…I'll write the paper for you."

Logan's head jerked up, elation spreading fast over his face. "Really, you'd do that?"

Chase nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, sure. I'll do it."

"Thanks, Chase!" Logan high fived him enthusiastically. "You're the best!"

"It's alright and…hey, where are you going?"

Logan turned back to him and there was this rare sincerity and cautiousness in his eyes again.

"I just …have a lot to think about right now. Maybe I'll go to the library, work on my geography assignment. You know, just try to…smarten up?"

"Oh." Chase was honestly amazed. "Wow. Yeah, you do that."

"Sure thing!"

It was only when Logan was out of sight that Chase realized that he'd just agreed to spend his afternoon typing not only seven hundred, but one thousand four hundred words for history. But he felt somehow okay was that. Having his roommate reach a breakthrough was worth the extra work, he supposed.

Shaking his head in wonder, he continued on his way to Maxwell hall.

He was on the verge of collapsing from all the dates, names and battles past, when Michael stormed into their room, holding an ice Popsicle in one hand and wildly gesturing with the other.

"Chase, man!" he called loudly, ran up to him and clapped him on the shoulder. "Where were you all day? Logan's got that awesome Japanese robot thing from his dad and we were testing it outside! It's got heat seeking reflexes and can transform into a remote-controlled car! You should have seen the nerds run in terror from the little bot! They thought the world was ending, or something!"

Chase stretched out his arms with a yawn. "Oh, I was here writing these history papers for me and…." Something clicked within his brain. "Wait. What do you mean Logan's been testing out-"

Laughter rang from the hallways and a second later, Logan entered their room, holding a sleek control pad in his hands. A broad grin was plastered across his face.

"'Sup, guys?"

Michael sauntered over to him and clapped his back. "Dude, that little robot is amazing! You scared the chizz out of that lunch lady."

"I know, right? And it was just-"

"You…you tricked me!" Chase interrupted, gaping and sputtering. "You made me write that stupid paper for you, just so you could test your new little gimmick?!"

"Huh?" For a moment Logan didn't seem to catch on. Then, his expression brightened. "Oh yeah. You've finished it already? Sweet!"

With all the nonchalance in the world he walked up to the desk, set the control panel down and snatched the paper from under Chase's stunned and outraged gaze.

"I hope you're some good." Logan continued, skimming over it. "'Cause if I mess up my history grade, coach's gonna bench me for the next month."

"But…but, you said, you…"

"Yeah." Another of those damnable cocky smirks was send his way and Logan stooped to tousle Chase's bushy hair. "You're so gullible. But hey, as long as it works for me, I don't really care."

He straightened up, wisely taking the paper with him and went past a confused Michael. "Anyways, I'm off to shoot some hoops with the guys. Later!"

Chase jumped up from his chair, his face turning bright red with anger. "That…that little…"

"Hey, hey! Hey now!" Michael hastily stood before him, holding him back. "Calm down, Chase! Neon-orange looks awful on us, remember?!"

Chase wheezed and stuttered, balling his hands into fists.

"Well…" he choked out. " I could pull it off!"

Michael looked at him at arm length with one eyebrow quirked and shook his head.

"No you couldn't. Believe me."

.

* * *

.


End file.
